Valspar's Copperhead Course may be miserly, but does provide magic moments

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Keith Mitchell took one last smooth pass with his dialed-down 7-iron from the fairway that sits in a valley on the final hole of Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead Course on Saturday, but he never watched the ball. He couldn't. Part of his divot had flown into his eye, so he turned away. Good thing thousands of fans lining the hole watched every inch of the shot. It was that good.

That was the thing about Saturday at the Valspar Championship – and very likely will be the case for Sunday’s final round, too. You couldn’t afford to look away. Do so, even for one split second, and you very likely could miss something quite special.

In this case, it was the flight of Mitchell’s approach at the 417-yard finishing hole, his ball tracking toward the flagstick from 159 yards out, taking a short little hop, and jumping into the cup for an eagle-2. Fireworks. One single shot on a wild Saturday gave Mitchell a final nine of 6-under 29, a round of 5-under 66, and officially vaulted Mitchell from “in the mix” to tournament leader. He is at 10-under 203, the lone man from a starting field of 155 to reach double-digits under par through 54 holes.

The exclamation-point eagle gave Mitchell a 3-2-2 finish in Copperhead’s feared Snake Pit (that's 4-under), and never before in the Snake Pit's rich history had it been defanged with such authority. If Mitchell falls short of the trophy, in playing the fearsome final three in seven total shots, he’ll always have history.

His finish was something straight off a movie reel. Birdie at the tight, water-guarded par-4 16th, which this week has been Copperhead’s toughest hole. Birdie at the tough par-3 17th, where Mitchell took “almost 20 yards” off a stock 7-iron and hit a shot to a couple feet. And then he went and saved the best for last. Hole-out eagle to finish.

“When I looked up, something kind of flew in my eye, so I kind of looked away and never saw it come down and land,” said Mitchell. Mitchell was a late commitment top Valspar this week, which is surprising, because it is the course where he played his first TOUR event. In 2017, he was toiling on the Korn Ferry Tour but ventured to Tampa for Monday qualifying and made it through. One memory he has is knowing that he could bogey his last two holes on Friday and still make the cut. That was a big deal then.

He tied for 11th that year in his cameo, saying: "That was really, I felt like, the first time I really knew I could compete out here."

If Saturday was an accurate precursor, we can expect some wild and special things to take place in Sunday’s final round. Eleven players will start the final day within four shots of Mitchell’s lead, and if Copperhead showed us anything on Saturday, it’s that lots of wild things can happen.

Rookie Chandler Phillips (70) of Texas was the only player in Saturday’s threesome to even break par – Kevin Streelman returned a 2-over 73, and Stewart Cink with a 76 – so it was best to keep one’s head down and keep trading punches with a course that perennially stands as one of the TOUR’s toughest tests.

At first glance, the Copperhead Course doesn’t appear to be a bruising heavyweight, but that players know they are in for a tussle, and every par means something. That’s why you never take good fortune for granted at Copperhead, especially around the dangerous Snake Pit. Mitchell will carry that Saturday finish with him for some time. Watching a replay of the shot and how it magically vanished into the hole put a wide grin on his face.

“It’s called the Snake Pit for a reason,” said Mitchell, 32, who is making his 170th career PGA TOUR start and owns one previous victory (2019 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches). “It was pretty cool how it hopped in.”

“I knew it was going to be good,” said Mitchell's caddie, John Lamanti, “but I didn’t know it was THAT good.”

For Mitchell, earning his second career victory on Sunday will be no easy task, and he knows it. Canadian MacKenzie Hughes (69), Ireland’s Seamus Powers (68) and American Peter Malnati, who coaxed in a final birdie putt from 32 feet at 18 to shoot 68, each begin the final round two shots back.

A trio at 7-under includes veteran Brendon Todd; Phillips, the 27-year-old rookie off the Korn Ferry Tour; and Cameron Young, a promising young 26-year-old who direly wants to break through and win for the first time. He owns six runner-up finishes already.

Young was struggling some early in his round on Saturday – he made three bogeys in a four-hole stretch – and then produced some magic of his own, holing out an “off-speed” gap wedge from about 121 yards for a deuce on the 398-yard seventh hole. That one shot sparked him. He birdied four of his next six holes, moving up the board.

As he chases that first TOUR victory, Young was asked if he has done a good job of staying patient?

“No, not really,” Young said candidly. “I’ve definitely let it get to me at times. I feel like right now I’m in a really nice place mentally. I’ve had good control over my thoughts and emotions this week.”

He doesn’t mind being part of a big pack, either, as a player can make a big move in short time with a few good holes. “It just takes two good swings,” Young said, “and you can move up a bunch.”

Phillips, a winner on the Korn Ferry Tour a year ago, is making only his 12th career start on the PGA TOUR, so he is pretty pleased with his showing at Valspar thus far. He tried not to look at the leaderboards too much on Saturday as part of the afternoon’s final grouping, which was an unfamiliar setting, but there are many, they are big, it was hard to avoid them.

The rookie from Texas has played nicely all week, and even shared the lead for a spell on Saturday until his putter cooled off. He three-putted the par-5 11th for par, and played his last eight holes in 2-over.

“I try not to think about it too much,” Phillips said. “Where I end up at the end of the day is where I end up. I don't want to be looking at the scoreboard all day and let that predict where I'm going to be... you know, three back going into tomorrow, closest I've ever been to the lead in a PGA TOUR event, so I can't complain.”

Complain? Why, there simply is no time for it. At Valspar, a golfer has to dig in, focus, and do his best just to stay with the pack.

Sunday could prove to be as special as Saturday. If it's anywhere near as wild, it will be one great ride.